Now that a weekend (and a holiday weekend at that) has come to an end, we thought it might be a good time to ask: when was the last time you got together with friends and/or family for a little group Wii gaming? Do you get together on a regular basis for a little Mario Kart, Smash Bros., or Wii Sports? Do you rarely play together with folks? We're curious about how much multiplayer action you're getting.Posts with tag mario-kart
Wii Warm Up: Getting together
Now that a weekend (and a holiday weekend at that) has come to an end, we thought it might be a good time to ask: when was the last time you got together with friends and/or family for a little group Wii gaming? Do you get together on a regular basis for a little Mario Kart, Smash Bros., or Wii Sports? Do you rarely play together with folks? We're curious about how much multiplayer action you're getting.Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/28-5/4
Even so, Link had to hail to the king (baby), as Mario Kart Wii still dominated the charts. The other big news for Mario Kart Wii? It passed one million sales in the Far East, denoting its success. Meanwhile, Deca Sports clamored back into the top ten, but Brawl only slipped further downward, thus answering our question from last week. Also proving that the Japanese love their sports games for the Wii, Bandai Namco's Pro Baseball Family Stadium debuted at spot twenty.
The Wii triumphed in hardware last week as well. While the console continues to trail behind Sony's handheld, Wii sales went up almost 30,000 units from last week -- perhaps from the Link's Crossbow boost. Go on and check things out for yourself after the break, if you feel so inclined.
Continue reading Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/28-5/4
Cowboy Jed implores you to look at more footage
By far the most enjoyable thing about Mario Kart Wii (and we're not saying Mario Kart is bad) is the psychotic "Cowboy Jed" advertising campaign, in which a hyperkinetic salesman attempts to sell us karts, while impressing upon us the importance of looking at the footage. Look at the footage!
The footage has just gotten a lot cooler with the discovery of a ton of previously-unseen Jed clips. They're available on archive.org under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license, meaning you're free to remix and share the all-important footage as long as you're not making money off of it.
If you just want to, you know, look at the footage, the "Cowboy Jed Song" link features a footagey music video (as seen above), and the "Cowboy Jed Montages" link features montages of the remixable material for viewing. Look at the cow! Look at the footage.
Read: The Cowboy Jed Song
Read: Cowboy Jed Clips for Remixing
Read: Cowboy Jed Montages
Another Week in Europe
Wii Fit is selling like gangbusters in Britain, where it accounts for half of all Wii software sold in the last week, and has given Nintendo its first one-two finish in the All Formats Chart since 2003. And guess what? It's more or less the same story throughout the rest of Europe.The Irish are shedding the Guinness pounds, the Germans are working off those brätwurst, and Sweden ... well, we don't really have a lazy, go-to food stereotype for the Swedes. Anyhow, the point is: they're all loving it, and if Wii Fit doesn't appear in a chart (see: Spain, Denmark), it's probably because a country hasn't got it yet, or the charts have fallen behind.
Mind you, don't expect any of this Nintendo dominance to last: next week's charts are guaranteed to be all about one game (yet we suspect Wii Fit might give you have better legs than GTA IV in the long-term). Lean past the break for this week's European charts.
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/21-4/27
Mario Kart Wii continues to top the charts in Japan, but a lot of movement happened with the Wii's other software. Because a bunch of new games came out last week, Wii Sports, Deca Sports, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl were all knocked out of the top ten. We know that Wii Sports will return to top ten fame soon enough, since it always does, but we'll be interested to see whether the other two titles can pull that off as well.On the hardware side of things, the Wii got sandwiched by the two portables as it jumped up into second place:
- PSP: 92,411
- Wii: 48,796
- Nintendo DS: 42,435
- PlayStation 3: 9,107
- PlayStation 2: 7,108
- Xbox 360: 1,283
Continue reading Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/21-4/27
Wii Fanboy Poll: Best control scheme for Mario Kart?
But now that you've had some time to play around with the game, you have to have a favorite control scheme. So, what is it?
Hit up our poll after the break to let us know, and feel free to explain why in the comments section.
Continue reading Wii Fanboy Poll: Best control scheme for Mario Kart?
First Mario Kart competition opens, disappoints
Wrong.
When we think of Mario Kart time trials, we think of gradually shaving milliseconds off of our best times, of taking every corner as finely as possible, of finding the best way to utilize our three mushrooms, of locating the perfect racing line, and of keeping our noses just ahead of the time trial ghosts. Yet this first Mario Kart Wii competition totally misses the point.
For instance, it's not a time trial at all, but a fully fledged race, complete with eleven opponents and all the usual items. In other words, you can take every corner as flawlessly as possible, only to get blue-shelled on the final straight. Which doesn't strike us as a terribly fair contest. We guess this is meant to level the playing field for newer players, but shouldn't more skillful players be justly rewarded?
Anyway, if you do want to try your hand at being robbed of a deserved victory, this blogger's best time so far is a quite appalling 2:03.325.
British magazine giving away free Wii Wheel
So the way we see it, you have two choices:
- Go with one of our totally awesome (and totally free) homemade Wii Wheels (the option we'd recommend) or:
- Pick up the latest issue of NGamer, which comes with the above "free" wheel packed in. It's not technically free, obviously, because you'll have to pony up the £4.99 for the magazine, which optimistically suggests that the free gift is worth £7, meaning somebody in NGamer's accounting department may well be clearing their desk later this month.
Update: Corrected U.S. price.
Gallery: Reinventing the Wii Wheel
Gallery: The Evolution of the Wii Wheel
[Via Go Nintendo]
Wii Fit quick out of the blocks in Britain
Of course, we always expected as much. Preorders for Nintendo's fitness title were sky-high in Blighty, with the game pretty much selling out before it even appeared on store shelves. Even so, the record-breaking success of Wii Fit may have surprised the most optimistic of Nintendo executives.
Over the weekend, Wii Fit became the sixth fastest-selling UK videogame of all time. That's an impressive achievement for any title -- until you remember that the Wii Fit bundle costs almost as much as two games (£70). Then, the achievement stops being merely impressive, and becomes jaw-dropping. It also set a new record as Nintendo's fastest-selling game ever in the UK, beating out poor old Mario Kart Wii, which held that particular title for ... two weeks. Ouch.
Gallery: Wii Fit
Wii Warm Up: Favorite tracks?
Gallery: Mario Kart Wii
Wii releases this week: Mario Kart Wii edition
This week's releases are:
- Mario Kart Wii
- Iron Man
Gallery: Mario Kart Wii
Wii Warm Up: Taking the wheel
Many of us have been hating on the Wii Wheel since it was first announced, and yet, since yesterday, we've spoken to tons of Wii owners who actually tried it ... and liked it. It was a mixed bag around here; some players (even longtime gamers!) loved it, and some found it less useful than some of the other control options. All we want to know is: did you at least try it, if you picked up Mario Kart, or did you skip it without even bothering?If it's a hit in your house, are you going to buy extra wheels (or possibly look for other solutions)?
Wii Warm Up: Karting
Who's getting it (or got it already)? What are your initial impressions? Have you played online?
And, folks in Europe and Japan (and even Australia!), have you noticed a difference in online play? Has it been lagging more since North American players joined that fray, or are things still smooth? Have you been schooling a lot of Mario Kart Wii "noobs" in races and battles?
Fanswag: The proud new owners of Mario Kart Wii
- doug, who is a fan of Rainbow Road
- Thrillho, who liked the Airship Fortress in MKDS, and was sad that it didn't make the jump to Wii
- JRVillalobos, another fan of Rainbow Road (the Double Dash version)
- Ginrei, who liked Rainbow Road in MK64 (we're sensing a trend here; perhaps the RNG is biased toward Rainbow Road)
- TedTheBug7, who has never played Mario Kart before
Wii Warm Up: Getting shelled
Since Mario Kart Wii is coming out soon, we wanted to know what some of your favorite (and least favorite) items are from the series. The one we're most curious about is the controversial blue shell. Do you hate it? Love it? What other items do you covet, or hope that you don't get stuck with?
Gallery: Mario Kart Wii
